Producers are reporting they're pleased with the quality of their oils and they're ready for New York.- Curtis Cord, NYIOOC

“We’re seeing strong enthusiasm from every region,” said Curtis Cord, the NYIOOC founder and Olive Oil Times publisher. “Despite lower yields in some places, producers are reporting they’re pleased with the quality of their oils — and they’re ready for New York.”

Last year, a record 910 entries from 27 countries were analyzed at the four-day event — the largest olive oil competition in the world. Cord, who earlier this year changed the event’s official name to NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, said he expected another strong showing for the sixth edition.

In fact, at the 2017 NYIOOC there were more oils awarded than ever before — a sign that, as Cord said when announcing the results, “efforts to make great olive oil around the world are paying off — producers in every region have answered our call and lifted their game.”

The winners of the NYIOOC are presented on the Best Olive Oils website — the popular online guide where thousands search every day for highly rated brands. Cord said his team is working on major enhancements to the guide that will expand its reach even further for NYIOOC2018. “In the end, our goal is to get the winning brands noticed. We’re working on new channels and interfaces to reach more people with these great oils,” said Cord.

Those initiatives will also expand the reach of the Best Olive Oil Marketplace (known as ‘BOOM’), the portal set up by the NYIOOC where people and businesses can buy the winning brands directly from the producers and merchants who stock them. This year, the Marketplace will also be rolled out internationally in key markets.

The 2018 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition results will be unveiled at a press conference on April 26 immediately following four days of analyses by eighteen of the world’s foremost expert tasters.

Cord has appointed two new judges to the panel, Dr. Karolina Brkić Bubola from Croatia and Francisco Ataíde Pavão from Portugal who will join 16 returning experts. The panel will use a new, proprietary judging program developed by NYIOOC that Cord called “the most advanced judging app in existence,” which eliminates paperwork and makes it impossible to misidentify a sample.

Producers and brand marketers can register entries for the 2018 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition on the NYIOOC Producer Tools website. Tickets to the event go on sale in February.